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802-645-0803 www. vermontlandscapingcompany. com to the FRC World Championship finals. In Burlington, Green Mountain Robotics works with GlobalFoundries and Hazelett Strip-Casting. Drapa shares that the students’ CAD work was so professional that Hazelett considered them for summer engineering projects. At the youngest level, Vermont’ s FIRST LEGO League Championship now takes place at GlobalFoundries in Essex Junction, Vermont’ s largest employer.“ The other 364 days of the year, nobody’ s getting past the GlobalFoundries gates,” Chase said with a smile.“ But, for that one day, the gates open and thousands of students, coaches, and parents flood GlobalFoundries. They receive big medallions with GlobalFoundries on the lanyard, and they wear them all day long. They come in already being celebrated as winners in STEM.” Drapa shares that invaluable support has been provided to FIRST in Vermont by The Argosy Foundation, their founding and sustaining sponsor. He adds that GlobalFoundries is the presenting sponsor of FIRST Lego League in Vermont.
Drapa, who works at GlobalFoundries, says that the impact of the event flows both ways.“ At GlobalFoundries last year, our employees put in over 1,500 hours of mentoring with local teams. The students who are working with those mentors now recognize what career paths are available to them, and they are building durable relationships with Vermont employers.” Financially, FIRST in Vermont invests deeply in making participation possible.
“ We start teams. That’ s what we do,” says Drapa.“ We also provide sustaining support to FRC teams. Our grants this year are totaling around $ 45,000, and even that amount leaves significant unmet demand.” Beyond cash, FIRST in Vermont provides coach meetings, peer-to-peer mentoring, and training in outreach, fundraising, and community engagement. Chase adds:“ For most of the teams, outreach is the most fun part of what they do. Robotics teams are marching in parades with floats, building shirt cannons, showing up at farmers’ mar-
60 manchester life | manchesterlifemagazine. com